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I'm now visiting a brand new office building in London and it is stunning. Not minimalist, brutalist, ornate. And unique. And everybody who works in it seems to

I'm now visiting a brand new office building in London and it is stunning. Not minimalist, brutalist, ornate. And unique. And everybody who works in it seems to love it. I want to work there. What bugs me is how most new buildings are similar all across the world. 100 years ago, each city has a character unique to it. Barcelona was uniquely Barcelona. Copenhagen was uniquely Copenhagen. Now most new buildings look like the architects have one, small template library.

mensetmanusman 4y ago
Globalization will result in monoculture after enough time has passed. That is a trade off.
BitwiseFool 4y ago
A meme was circulating last week showing dozens of sedans from multiple automakers and it highlighted just how similar they all looked. The meme was criticizing the notion that competition facilitates innovation. However I think people failed to take into account that cars have likely converged to a common design as a consequence of fuel economy and regulatory pressures. I wonder if similar pressures affect architecture and likewise result in the blandness we now notice.
- abyssin 4y ago
  I know very little about the actual job of an architect, but I think new architectural design trends have a lot to do with the tools that are used to draw buildings. Being an architect used to require strong drawing and mental modelling abilities. Those two would have an impact on the aesthetics of the buildings. Another factor is the way we move around. When you walk, you have the time to see details. Do architects nowadays spend many hours walking in cities every week? Lastly, the cost of manual work probably had a big impact. Builders probably contributed a lot of the beauty that can be seen in old buildings, also because drawings used to be less precise.
- djur 4y ago
  Part of it is complying to building codes, and part of it is a tactic to get through design review boards. "This is a design you've approved a dozen times before and appears in cities all over the country" is an effective argument against all kinds of design nitpicks, and complaints about the buildings looking too similar can be addressed by letting the board slap on some random facades and whatnot until they feel invested.
slyall 4y ago
Could you post a link?
jdkee 4y ago
See https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/08/why-every-city-feels-same-now/615556/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/08/why-e...
fy20 4y ago
A few years ago a new apartment building in my city had a rather unique design, the fundamentals of it are very simple: - a high angle silver metal roof with a very small overhang - white rough plastered walls - black accents Another building in the complex had the same but with black walls. This shape building had been popular for a few years for 1-2 floor single family houses, but not for apartment buildings. The local architectural design agency gave it their "Building of the Year" award. Now basically every new apartment either has this colour scheme or this shape, it's like somebody used Stable Diffusion just trained on pictures of the first building to make new designs :D https://www.eika.lt/basanaviciaus-9a/ https://www.eika.lt/basanaviciaus-9a/ https://www.newmoon.lt/#Galerija-1 https://www.newmoon.lt/#Galerija-1 https://renesanso.lt/gallery/ https://renesanso.lt/gallery/ https://citify.eu/lt/paupys-7-etapas/ https://citify.eu/lt/paupys-7-etapas/

mensetmanusman 4y ago

Globalization will result in monoculture after enough time has passed. That is a trade off.

BitwiseFool 4y ago

A meme was circulating last week showing dozens of sedans from multiple automakers and it highlighted just how similar they all looked. The meme was criticizing the notion that competition facilitates innovation. However I think people failed to take into account that cars have likely converged to a common design as a consequence of fuel economy and regulatory pressures. I wonder if similar pressures affect architecture and likewise result in the blandness we now notice.

abyssin 4y ago
I know very little about the actual job of an architect, but I think new architectural design trends have a lot to do with the tools that are used to draw buildings. Being an architect used to require strong drawing and mental modelling abilities. Those two would have an impact on the aesthetics of the buildings. Another factor is the way we move around. When you walk, you have the time to see details. Do architects nowadays spend many hours walking in cities every week? Lastly, the cost of manual work probably had a big impact. Builders probably contributed a lot of the beauty that can be seen in old buildings, also because drawings used to be less precise.
djur 4y ago
Part of it is complying to building codes, and part of it is a tactic to get through design review boards. "This is a design you've approved a dozen times before and appears in cities all over the country" is an effective argument against all kinds of design nitpicks, and complaints about the buildings looking too similar can be addressed by letting the board slap on some random facades and whatnot until they feel invested.

slyall 4y ago

Could you post a link?

jdkee 4y ago

See https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/08/why-every-city-feels-same-now/615556/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/08/why-e...

fy20 4y ago

A few years ago a new apartment building in my city had a rather unique design, the fundamentals of it are very simple: - a high angle silver metal roof with a very small overhang - white rough plastered walls - black accents Another building in the complex had the same but with black walls. This shape building had been popular for a few years for 1-2 floor single family houses, but not for apartment buildings. The local architectural design agency gave it their "Building of the Year" award. Now basically every new apartment either has this colour scheme or this shape, it's like somebody used Stable Diffusion just trained on pictures of the first building to make new designs :D https://www.eika.lt/basanaviciaus-9a/ https://www.eika.lt/basanaviciaus-9a/ https://www.newmoon.lt/#Galerija-1 https://www.newmoon.lt/#Galerija-1 https://renesanso.lt/gallery/ https://renesanso.lt/gallery/ https://citify.eu/lt/paupys-7-etapas/ https://citify.eu/lt/paupys-7-etapas/